Komodo rhino

Komodo rhino

General information

Habitat

Uses

Komodo rhinos are large beasts with long and powerful tails that the Fire Nation often use in large scale battles.[1] These relentless beasts wear armor and are often employed by the military for overcoming steep walls and vertical surfaces - a fast and ferocious transport vehicle exclusive to firebenders.[1] They are half rhino and half komodo dragon.[2]

Contents

History

Komodo rhinos were used during the Siege of the North. Ridden by a firebender, a komodo rhino was released from its cage on the lead Fire Nation ship. The beast charged from the ship and scaled vertically up the wall of the Northern Water Tribe city. Overlooking the city, the firebenders bent the fire from the flaming metal cages. The attacks crashed against the wall and sent blazing streams of fire down the courtyard below. After the first breach was made with the "fire cannon", two more komodo rhinos, with their firebender riders, crawled into the breach, leading the assault into the city.

Anatomy

The komodo rhino resembles both of its namesakes, a large komodo dragon and a rhinoceros. This hybridized animal is covered in thick, gray skin, which serves as natural protection for their body. This creature has a head of a komodo, with a torso resembling that of a rhinoceros, but ends in a long, komodo-like tail. The feet are short, muscular, and clawed like a komodo. Unlike their animated counterparts, the komodo rhinos shown in the film do not posses the rhino-ears and the three large curved horns that dominate their faces: two curving down from their forehead and one curving upward from their snout.

Abilities

Despite its size, a komodo rhino is surprisingly fast and agile. Its strong claws enable it to scale vertically up walls and even sideways, with a passenger and other payloads. Its thick hide provides some degree of protection against external damage and extreme temperatures, both hot and cold. Being undeterred by the flaming metal cages suggests that it is impervious to fire, yet capable of surviving in a sub-zero climate like in the icy poles. It is unafraid of going over iced surfaces in the poles, suggesting that it is capable of swimming or crawling out of the freezing waters if the ice breaks.

Trivia

A "komodo rhino launcher" was featured as part of McDonald's Happy Meal toys to promote The Last Airbender.

Komodo rhinos are exclusively ridden by firebenders, who are elites in the Fire Nation, possibly similar to a horse is primarily ridden by knights, who were the elites in Medieval times. Being impervious to fire may be useful to a firebender.

Being a ferocious carnivore, a komodo rhino is too dangerous to be left unattended. While being transported to the Siege of the North, the komodo rhinos were kept in a cage until ready to be deployed in battle.

The komodo rhinos of the film resemble the Megalania, a large carnivorous extinct prehistoric lizard of Australia who is related to the monitor lizards of today.